Home…
We got home at around 7 last night. I jumped straight into the shower and stayed there for over half an hour.
Hubby had to fly to Chicago for a business trip today. His flight left this morning at 7am, so he had to leave the house by 5am. I hope the poor stewardesses can wake him up when the flight lands. His coworkers there told him that they would take him to a REAL Italian Restaurant while he’s there. One that doesn’t have the word Garden or Factory in the name.
We had a lot of fun on our camping trip. We had deer IN our campground. Apparently our dog isn’t much of a watch dog. Heck, he’s not even a notice dog.
One night, as we were sitting around the campfire, we looked over near where our dog Gizmo was and there was a DEER standing there about six feet away from where our 120 pound yellow lab was dozing. When we pointed at the deer (’Oh my gosh! There’s a deer right there.”), Gizmo just stood up and looked at us like What? Do I have something on my face?. When he realized that we weren’t pointing at him and looked behind him, he jumped and started chasing the deer. The deer didn’t move at first. It seemed to be pretty well aware that it wasn’t dealing with an honor roll Huntin’ Dawg.
We gave Gizmo such a hard time about the deer sneaking up on him that night. He was so embarassed. He moped all night. The next day every time one of the gajillion chipmunks or a squirrel ran across the campsite he was on high alert. Trying to redeem his Doggy worth. Poor dog.
For any GF people who happen to be reading, the Holiday Grocery store in Chester, CA, near Lake Almanor, has gluten free stuff. It’s not it’s own section, but there are a few things included with everything else. I didn’t have time to go up and down every aisle, but I saw a few things. They had Pamela’s cookies, Pamela’s brownie mix and Van’s Wheat Free frozen waffles. They also had a couple of the premade breads, but I can’t remember which. Food for Life I think. I did go down the pasta aisle to see if they had GF pasta and they didn’t. I was so excited to be able to get the waffles. I didn’t premake pancakes or anything and the other families had pancakes a couple times.
We spent most of our time at the lake. Most of the people in Hubby’s family waterski or wakeboard. I’m happy to just sit on the beach watching the kids play in the water. I’ve got a bad back that can barely deal with sleeping on an air mattress for six nights when combined with prescription ibuprofen. Trying to learn how to wakeboard is probably a very bad idea. If I can get hubby to buy a big snazzy star trailer RV with a nice thick mattress and fluffy pillows I might think about giving it a try again.
Some of Hubby and FIL’s friends from work (they work at the same office) came up just for the weekend. Friday night Andrei, who is from Belarus I believe, showed hubby a Russian drinking tradition. They eat pickles with vodka like we do limes with tequila. At some point after the second shot, Hubby and Andrei also decided they each needed to defend the honor of their countries by drinking large amounts of the hooch and pickle combo. Hubby was drinking for his ancestors in Germany and Andrei was drinking for Russia. They both ended up praying to the trees by the time it was all over.
One of their other friends brought his big teloscope. We got to see Jupiter and five of it’s moons. So cool.
The premade chili I made was a big hit. One of the people we camped with is a foodie and he loved it. Yay me! Now all I have to do is remember what I did. When it comes to chili I just throw everything together and dump in spices until it tastes like Chili. Very scientific.
The Little Filly and my son went innertubing, which is when they pull a big huge inflatable thing behind the boat like they’re pulling a waterski. My 13yo nephew and his friend went with them so they could help them. When my daughter went she did great. She didn’t like the water spray in her eyes, but she was on there for a long time. We could see her waving from shore.
My son loved it and was telling them to go faster until he decided he didn’t need to hold on anymore. He let go and because he’s so skinny he caught air and went flying. My nephew let go as soon as my son took off and was right there with him two seconds after he hit the water. Apparently by the time the boat came back around a few seconds later my son had climbed on top of my nephew and was wrapped around his head like a cat, screaming bloody murder. My son was done with the boat after that.
Even though I didn’t do any wakeboarding or innertubing, I did go on a boat ride with my in-laws and one of our friends in the middle of the afternoon. It turns out that on Lake Almanor in the middle of the afternoon the wind kicks up so bad for a few hours that it’s like being in the middle of the ocean. Not like huge waves or anything, but very, very bumpy. Every once in a while it even lifts you off your seat. My BIL got caught in it on his JetSki the weekend before we came up and was hating life by the time he got back. He said he couldn’t even sit down on it and had to stand up to ride over everything and just keep going or he was going to get knocked over. And Lake Almanor is pretty big. I’d say it’s about a fifth of the size of Lake Tahoe. Much bigger than any of the little lakes we usually camp at.
Anyway, back to my boat ride. My FIL tricked me into let me drive the boat for a while in the middle of the oceany wavy mess. He just told me which mountain to aim it toward and how to cross the waves. So now I’ve driven a boat.
We had smores on Saturday night. I think the person who ate the most smores was Andrei. Which was surprising considering Friday night’s pickles and vodka incident. My kids aren’t much for sticky sweetness. My daughter ate around the edges of one and my son took one bite. That’s okay. More for momma.
